IamZavok's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Scarecrows]

jumps in quality

first off, you have a great grasp of flash and you are obviously a very good artist. However, a good artist =/= automatically equal a good animator. While all of your characters felt like they had weight and volume (they felt real), they moved kind of stiffly and it felt very off, like an uncanny valley effect. You were close but you were in the valley and so the animation was slightly painful to watch for me just because of the irritating nature of being so close to awesome. I'm saying that your motion needs words and make your movement less jittery. Other than that you are golden my good man.

as far as the story goes, it was simple yet fell into cliches and didn't explain things very well. You are relying to much on your audiences willing suspension of disbelief, as in, you're leaving to much up to them to just go "ok well I guess that makes sense".

one last thing, it seemed like the movie's quality of animation jumped at times, going from being very disneylike(fluid and motion focused) to very anime like (keyframes and pose focused with minimal in betweens). That actually made my head hurt from the transition, I'm not saying either of those styles are bad, I'm just saying you need to stay consistent. Look at the old Looney Tunes, they sacrificed detail for fluidity and poses, anime sacrifices fluidity (keyframes) for detail and poses (or any other manner of match up depending on series).

other than those few gripes, I enjoyed it. Good job and I hope you keep animating.

Kaloian responds:

I totally agree with the story comment but I didn't want it to be all exposition because it would be too boring and frankly too much work as the animation would be incredibly long. The animation jumps like that because i had to prioritize scenes to get it 'done" and to do that I animated things to a certain degree and finished off the more important/ cooler scents this left me in a "that looks done" stage and so it is what it is now. I personally think the film could be livelier as they tend to stick to certain poses which makes it very "cut out animation" which it isn't. But thanks for the comments and that was actually a lot of help, thanks.

[Parallel Memories: Teaser]

Just get rid of this idea.

you need to take some writing classes. Also, read a few books about writing.
also, create characters that are not recolors.
I can already tell that this is a bad idea rapped up with decent sprite animation with a bit of star power (omahdon) and that is about it.
As Ethernia said before, "nothing to new or interesting"

I found myself forgetting the characters even 10 seconds after I had watched the video. Mostly because I can already tell even by looking at the character descriptions that calling these characters card bored will probably be an insult to the packaging materiel.

So far all the heroes are directly following the stereotypes and cliches. There is nothing new here. Only old stuff that I can already say will be submitted to the portal, raved about because it has Mario and sonic in it. Then forgotten in the hoards of other stuff exactly like it.

Here's what you need to do. You need to forget about this series. Forget about all the plans you had for it. Call it off. Spend your summer doing something original. Take a creative writing class. Do something that doesn't involve Mario or Sonic or some other character or series that has been done to death.

I know you are probably thinking, "but I have some original ideas that would probably be good". Yes you do. But not involving Sonic. You probably could come up with something amazing if you tried. But first you have to grow out of this "Sonic and Mario" stage. Make something original!

Kick this crap to the curb. You've grown up, your a better animator then this. I don't know how many animators on this site that have so much talent, waist their time on stuff like this. You are not going to revolutionize anything or set the world on fire with yet another alternate version of a segaXnintento world. If you look at the movie industry... hell if you look at any creative industry, there are billions of clones when something gets popular, and that's what your creating. A clone, weather it be a clone of dragon ball z, or a clone of sonic, it's a clone. It's copypasta, it's UNORIGINAL.

anyone can do sonic! ANYONE! look at the billion of sonic fan made videos and Mario series around you. do you really want to swim in this sea of mediocrity? and even if your video stands above the rest and you actually achieve something, what then? it's still just a crappy spin on Mario and Sonic. While stuff like Waterlollies and Metropolitan circuit are standing above the rest. Things like Xombie and Mastermind and Tankmen! original stuff that we all compare everyone else's stuff to.

if you created something original it could have the chance to become iconic like these characters. If you created an original story, with a pleasing ascetic and likable characters then you would have accomplished something instead of creating a story of the likes a 12 year old boy could have shat out.
I suppose the TL; DR version of this would be:

Please for the love of god man, don't waist your talents on something so unoriginal and trivial, Newgrounds has enough stuff like this. Make something original! and even if it's crap and you think you could have done better with the idea you had for Mario and Sonic, know that the next idea you execute will be better! and that the path to originality, while being a difficult one, is much more rewarding in the end. You don't see Alvin Earthworm or Johnbro gaining the iconic status of Egoraptor, or TheSwain or Adam Phillips do you?

Also please note that, I am not, I am simply saying you can do better and that this is a horrible idea. the Constructive criticism being me telling you to pursue something original. Also, if you are going to come back with the whole "this is just practice" Bologna, i say Bullshit. You are never going to go anywhere just practicing. If people in the army just practiced and never actually fought the enemies, people would lose all the wars that they were ever involved in.

So, if you actually read this review, I hope my long winded criticism has given you something... lol had to laugh at myself there, you're not going to take this seriously

Pienkaito responds:

Of course, I won't take this seriously.
Nobody in Newgrounds is serious about anything. =)
In case you wonder, I did read the whole thing. Was kinda bored. =P

This is original, it's has nothing with Mario and Sonic anymore...*cough* *cough* ´v´
Okay, it will but that's not the main point here. It will appear TOO MANY other characters in the series, so that you won't even know, from which game/anime they are coming from. XD

The main thing is, have you ever watched a decent fan-character based movie with sprites and a somewhat-original storyline?

I did watched one or two here. They were good...at their times (2000 or something)

Nowadays there aren't any of these, so why not?
Also, where is Mario and Sonic here anyway?
If you tell me Mario or Sonic are in this, then you should really go to a doctor.

Anyway, nobody can stop me of doing the series.
I can't even do that, It's already in progress now. =P
And I can see, that I reached a good animating level myself. So I'm going to pack it into this series.

This has got somewhat-ORIGINAL characters with a somewhat-ORIGINAL plot.
LMAO XD

[Can't Catch Tomorrow]

emphasis was on the wrong thing

You've missed the point of the style you chose to emulate. Anime is extremely simplified and therefore easy to animate. However, you didn't focus enough on the environment. Many times when art is simplified it is so that the artist can put emphasis on something else (example: environment, objects, story, music etc.)
However this video was totally lacking in that. If you have ever watched Disney movies or looked at anime closely, you will notice that when the characters are simplified to that extent, the background and objects are given much more detail. To emphasize not the fact that the characters exist or are in a certain style, more to emphasize where the characters are and where they are going. Or the object they have in their possession (if you have ever watched a mech anime, then you see the emphasis put on the mechs, not on the people driving them.)

Anime does this wonderfully, however, many people misplace the reason that the characters are so cute and simplified. I mean no offense by saying this but you are a textbook example of a person who completely misses the point of anime.

I think this movie was a good try though. Remember, listen to people's opinions. True artists must always hear criticism, otherwise they never improve.

IrisAngel responds:

Thank you very much for your review, I will definitely bear what you have said in mind next time I animate in this style.

I was learning while I made this, and hadn't really attempted backgrounds before. I will be practicing a lot more. I would have put in a lot more detail had I not been working to this deadline.

I.A.

[2 Time Sticks]

good!

keep on practicing! then you can make one titled Trevor's awesome animation!

Rovertarthead responds:

Oh yeah i could do some Awsome animations! Its just that i wanted to make a short crappy stick flash for fun. LOL I do practice a lot too.

[Link, Wake Up Dammit!]

it was ok

I found the humor quite lacking for this parody, the bit at the end with the spider had a flash of true comedy, but it was predictable.

decent animation, stale sound effects, and overall the animation seemed a bit woody

but it was ok, don't get me wrong

6/10

Ryan094 responds:

Yeah, well thanks.

[GunChest Episode 04_02]

amazing!

It was an excellent choice to give people a choice of voices, I watched the korean voices, honestly as I've said in past reviews of this series, the american ones suck and downgrade the whole feel of the show.
but the animation and story are spot on!

GunChest responds:

Yes...It was hard work...
BTW Thanks your review.

[Alone in the Dork]

horrible

leave the funny video game shit to Ego Raptor and pals, having someone commenting on it, outside the couch is ripping it off as is.

Dave-Flinch-Price responds:

Quite possibly. Nice to see that you "follow convention" when something different comes along. Cheers.

[SRM short: McBurgerBell]

i lol'd

very entertaining

Battosai810 responds:

That it is... why only a 5, if it's very entertaining though? Oh well, thanks for watching!

[Don't Leave]

I agree with ozberger

most of the things seemed traced from animes... the animation was bad for what i've come to expect from people who trace. But the voice acting was kinda good... but overall I'd say this is just a good idea exicuted extremely badly

hope your next flash is original in the animation, and keep up the great voice acting

Jestercap13 responds:

yes, but i didnt copy directly, im not good at moving things and im still learning, and i guess im not going to be doing something like this again, sorry every one. dont worry though my next one will be original.